The Drug War

The United States government has been fighting a war on drugs at home and abroad since the time President Eisenhower was in office.  Nevertheless, the drug war did not receive the level of attention that we now attribute to it until 1973 when Drug Enforcement Administration declared an all-out global war on the drug menace” (Suddath). Since then the US has become “the biggest consumer of drugs in the world” and Latin America, specifically, has become the biggest supplier of cocaine and drugs for trafficking into the US (Suddath). Subsequently, the drug cartels of Latin America are also “the greatest organized crime threat to the United States” and are a major destabilizing factor in cities near the Mexico-US boarder (Hossin). As a result, the US has spent billions of dollars in continuing this war against drugs, however, the war against drugs in South America should not be considered as a mainly US led enterprise as it has global implications that effect the global community as a whole. The drug wars are changing in Latin America as bilateral agreements are now being supplemented by a growing need for a multilateral, liberalist approach because of changing views on the drug trade.  

            Previously, efforts to combat the war on drugs in Latin America were limited to US sponsored economic and military aid (LeoGrande). In order to combat drug addiction and drug trafficking into the United States through Mexico, the US had primarily focused on combating drugs at their source. What this has meant is the empowerment of local law enforcements and the military in countries like “Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia” with a focus on “eradicating crops, attacking refining labs, seizing shipments, and arresting traffickers” in the hopes of stemming the flow of drugs through Latin America. Plan Colombia, is the result of one such bilateral agreement and is characterized by extensive military intervention in Colombia. The plan consists of a US commitment of 1.3 billion dollars, as well as additional funding in subsequent years, for the eradication of cocaine, combating guerrilla movements and social development (Ernst). A similar plan was initiated in Mexico called the Merida Initiative which went into effect in 2008 and devoted 456 million dollars in US funds to “drug smuggling and violence” in Latin America (Suddath).Still the success of these plans and other military programs are speculative, and while Mexico and Colombia have succeed in capturing many influential cartel leaders, violence has only escalated between law enforcement and the drug cartels. Consequently, Latin America has begun to consider solutions outside of bilateral agreements like Plan Colombia and the Merida Initiative, and others like them, supported by the financial backing of the US.  Instead, the leaders of Latin America have begun to voice their sentiments that the approach taken against the drug war must move from simple prohibition and suppression.

            Latin America is beginning to address the drug trade as an issue that needs to be combated multilateral. All previous attempts undertaken by the US in cooperation with other countries have only served to move the drug trade as cartels have moved from Mexico to other, more susceptible nations in Central America after the past military crackdown in Mexico. In Colombia a similar situation is also occurring as Colombian cocaine exports are dropping and those of other counties, like Peru are increasing. As a result, the leaders of the Americas reconvened at a summit this year intending to discuss a “major shift in regional and anti-drug policy” (Armstrong).  One of the main solutions which has been gaining ground and was expecting extensive debate at the summit was decriminalization, as it would remove the need for the violence that characterizes the drug trade (Kenny). Critics of the drug war, have been claiming for years that, the war against drug trafficking has only served to push the business underground and created a thriving transnational drug trade which legalization would promptly end.  What the proliferation of this solution illustrates, is the change in priorities by Latin American governments, security for citizens, not the end of recreational drug use in the US, is now the goal leaders have in mind. The governments of Latin America are starting to be held accountable to their constituents, who are the main victims of efforts to combat the drug trade.  In Mexico alone the toll has climbed 48,000 for drug related deaths and consequently the main concern for citizens is a reduction in violence, not drug raids and arrests and decriminalization would address this (Fantz). Mexico is changing at the domestic level, and therefore changes in Mexico’s relations with other countries are also occurring. The newly elected president is already planning on withdrawing the Mexican Army from the drug war and declared that Mexico should not be “subordinate to the strategies of other countries” (Maung).  The move towards decriminalization in Latin America also demonstrates the changing view of the drug trade, the growing support represents a changing global norm, especially since support is also coming from other areas of the international community.  Still, the US has remained adamantly opposed to legalization, but Obama was aware of the need that the recent Summit be “a dialoge between all countries” as further recognition of the shift to a multilateral approach (Armstrong). In addition, even the other proposed solutions discussed at Summit, also demonstrated a multilateral tendency, such as the formation of a regional Central American court system that would be able to try drug traffickers. More evidence that the drug will no longer be led solely by the US as the drug war continues to change.  

            In summation, despite a lack of physical headway against the cartels, the drug war is no longer stagnant among the leaders of South America. The leaders of South America are recognizing that “as the consumption of drugs spreads throughout the Americas, the responsibility to address this challenge needs to spread [because] this is a shared responsibility” (Rogin).Solutions that were previously ignored, like decriminalization are becoming legitimate propositions to be decided upon and leaders are looking for more multilateral solutions besides US military intervention (Kenny). Moreover, if the legalization of the drug trade were to occur, Latin America, in keeping with liberalism would no doubt turn towards more institutions that could monitor the legalized drug trade. However, while the road to international decriminalization remains uncertain, societal reform focused on education and addressing poverty and unemployment should be expected to gain ground with the disenfranchised. But as long as the drug wars continue, the illicit drug trade will continue on as a transnational crime organization funding illegal activities and destabilizing the international system

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